InsightFormation President, Bill Barberg, Received “Health System Transformation” Award for Innovative Work to Advance Collaboration around the Opioid/Heroin/Fentanyl Crisis

At a recent gathering of health coalition leaders, Bill Barberg, the President & Founder of InsightFormation, Inc., was presented the 2018 Health System Transformation Award from Communities Joined in Action (CJA). CJA is a national membership organization of local and regional community health collaboratives, all of which are committed to better health for all people at less cost. CJA has members in 45 states and facilitates the acceleration and dissemination of best practices and tools, facilitates formal learning opportunities, and supports community health collaboratives that improve health and eliminate disparities. The Health System Transformation Award “recognizes an individual, organization or community health coalition/collaborative that has demonstrated a breakthrough model that achieves better health outcomes, reduces inequities, promotes a culture of health—and is adaptable in other settings.“

Mr. Barberg was nominated for the award by one of InsightFormation’s clients, Dottie Baker of the Alachua County Health Promotion and Wellness Coalition. Ms. Baker emphasized four specific ways that Mr. Barberg has contributed to the transformation of our nation’s health system:

Open Source Strategy Map Templates

Communities across the country are overwhelmed by the complexity of the “wicked problems” they are trying to address. Instead of expecting each community coalition to spend countless hours attempting to design a comprehensive strategy for topics like the opioid crisis or suicide prevention, Mr. Barberg has made substantial contributions toward building a series of open source strategy map templates which give guidance and direction to a broad spectrum of health and community organizations that are working to solve priority health issues.

The Opioid Coalition Resource Hub

In addition to the strategy map templates, Mr. Barberg launched the development of the Opioid Coalition Resource Hub, a free, open source, national resource for coalitions. This resource hub is organized around the strategy map template and it equips many teams in a large coalition with information and tools they can use to begin working on a subset of the overall strategy without requiring a large grant or a new funding source. It makes it easy for people to find tools (most of which are freely shared) they can use to quickly take action. In her nomination, Ms. Baker notes, “In a time where resources are scarce, this timely tool helps coalitions to ‘get out in front of the problem.’"

You can learn more about the Strategy Map Template for the Opioid, Heroin and Fentanyl Crisis in the Opioid Coalition Resource Hub, which can be accessed at: http://bit.ly/opioidcrh

An Inspiring Workshop on How Communities Can Address the Opioid Crisis

In her recommendation, Ms. Baker shared about the workshop Mr. Barberg delivered on December 19, 2017 that was delivered live in Florida and online, “It was extremely well attended and there was an outpouring of appreciation and accolades for what he presented.” In the workshop evaluation, participants shared the following about the value they received:

“It gave our organization ways to help our grantees develop opioid programs. Big projects can be overwhelming, so learning how to break it down into manageable steps is crucial.” -- Alexia

“Understanding that the crisis can be fixed.” -- Carson

“Very innovative ideas for seeking funds.” -- John

“This structure of organizing for service delivery as a template that could be used to bring together a collection of coalitions for the topic in the Opioid Coalition Resource Hub.”—Helen

“Great concept for us to understand so that we can begin to tackle our very complex population health issues”. -- Patrick, Coalition Executive Director

Ms. Baker reflected on the value of this workshop: “Communities are starving for inspiration on how to approach the national [opioid] crisis. Mr. Barberg's contributions are not just valuable, but the timing is impeccable. He demonstrated practical examples that support the idea that everyone has value within the society and can make some contribution to our societal issues.”

This workshop has been expanded into a day-and-a-half long workshop that is being delivered by Mr. Barberg and a national team of experts in an innovative Local + National Simulcast model. Local coalitions will gather together to not only learn about practical solutions and free tools from the Opioid Coalition Resource Hub, but they will also be guided to work together to create high-impact action plans for using those tools. The main presentations will be delivered through a simulcast video and there will be six tracks of breakout options delivered in person or as webinars. Learn more about how you can have one of these action-oriented workshops in your community at: http://bit.ly/hostwks

Authoring a Key Chapter on Implementing Population Health Strategies

Another contribution to health system transformation is the chapter that Mr. Barberg has written on "Implementing Population Health" for the book, “Solving Population Health Problems through Collaboration” (Routledge, 2017). This book is now being used as a graduate school textbook to help shift education from clinical care or an academic approach of epidemiology (studying the problem) to a pragmatic approach to solving the problem. The chapter presents six practical steps for building community teamwork in addressing complex challenges, and it has received many accolades from public health leaders.

In the conclusion of her nomination, Ms. Baker states: “With Mr. Barberg's approach, no longer are we encouraged to sit back and wait for the government to solve the issues, but we are inspired to roll up our sleeves and get to work, because it offers a road map.”

Recent CJA Presentations by Bill Barberg

Mr. Barberg has presented three times at Communities Joined in Action national conferences, most recently in 2017 on the topic of “Social Impact Bonds, 2.0. A New Way to Get Resources and Results.” A video of that presentation can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/CJiA-SIB2